Time to Move This Parade, Too

Sorry, it's just too big for the neighborhood, too out of control and attracts too many morons:

• Two people were stabbed and at least two others were robbed during post-Pride Parade mayhem in the Boystown area Sunday night and early Monday morning.
  CWB estimates that 17 people were arrested while the parade was in progress and at least 20 more were arrested in the hours following the event. (Late Monday,  Chicago police announced that they made 52 arrests in connection with the Pride Parade,  a 20‰ increase over last year,  according to the Windy City Times. )

So now, Crime is Down!

Except murders, which are in fact up.

And shootings, which are up.

And parade violence, which is up....mostly on the northside it seems.

The CrimeInBoystown blog has a play-by-play of the mayhem, running well into Monday morning. Time to move it downtown, put it on the clock, and start charging the parade organizers for security, police, TMA's and clean-up...if they aren't already.

Shots Fired at Police

By a 16-year-old who's lucky he's going to see 17:

• A 16-year-old boy was charged with trying to kill a cop after the teen allegedly fired at a police officer in the Uptown neighborhood Sunday afternoon, officials said Monday.
  
  The boy, who is from Chicago but whose name was not available, was charged with three counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a gun with a defaced serial number, said [...] a Chicago Police Department spokesman.
  
  The charges stem from an incident that happened about 3 p.m. Sunday on the 4600 block of North Kenmore Avenue, police said.
  
  According to police, the teen was running away from police when the boy turned and fired his weapon at the officer.

Amazing how the assailant got a hold of a gun, what with all the laws and rules against it. Good thing no one was injured.

Tourist Stabbed

The "Choose Chicago" people are NOT going to be happy:

• Chicago police are holding a man for stabbing a tourist outside a downtown hotel.
  
  Police say the victim got into an altercation with a man who’d been drinking, early Monday morning outside the Wyndham Grand Hotel, 71 E. Upper Wacker Drive.
  
  His arm was cut with a glass bottle. He needed stitches at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Any bets as to how this tourist is going to rate his visit to town?

"Hey, that Emergency Room was fantastic! 5-Stars!!!"

Another Piece of the Puzzle

It seems the Department has re-opened the TO-SPOT overtime initiative, in both 4 and 8 hour increments.

The program only seems to re-open when Federal money becomes available, usually when a specific threat or threat profile is detected.

Expect some announcements shortly.

Fight This Pardon Application

This isn't a Parole Hearing, but an application for a pardon. And it's right here in town, so a decent showing shouldn't be difficult:

• I have written to you about this before and I hate to have to do so again. As you may recall, Pat Quinn commuted the sentence of Howard Morgan. A jury convicted Morgan of four counts of Attempt Murder of four uniformed police officers. After exhausting his appeals, he engineered the commutation of his sentence. He is now seeking a full pardon based on innocence. This will allow him to get a FOID card and try to revive his now dismissed civil suit against the officers. [...] I am asking for your help in one of several ways. You can send a letter of protest to the board at:
  
  Illinois Prisoner Review Board
  Craig Findley, Chairman
  319 East Madison Street, Suite A
  Springfield, Illinois 62701
  Phone (217) 782-7273
  Fax (217) 524-0012
  
  Another way to help would be to show up in support of the victims at the State of Illinois Building 100 W. Randolph, Chicago, Illinois on July 8, 2015, at 9:00 a.m., or send representatives from your departments. The petitioner usually has several uninformed supporters at all of his court dates. It would be helpful to have officers and civilians who are familiar with all the facts to support the officers.
  
  The final way would be to let other people know about this.
  Thanks,

Quinn commuted this jagoff's sentence on the way out the door, ignoring facts in evidence and testimony elicited at court - it was pretty much a "fuck you" to law enforcement as Quinn had just lost reelection. Morgan was a piece of shit years ago that never seemed to get flushed and nearly cost four officers their lives. A full pardon would be another bad joke in this crooked state.

Slow Weekend (UPDATE - Not So Slow?)

So whatever everyone was doing this weekend, keep doing it!

• Three people have been killed and at least 13 others injured in shootings across Chicago since Friday evening.

We happened to be relaxing in the pool with a frosty beverage (root beer floats if you must ask) and we plan on more of the same shortly.

UPDATE: The Tribune has updated its shot-o-meter:

• Three people were killed and at least 21 were wounded in shootings across the city over the weekend.
  
  That pushed the city homicide total for 2015 to at least 213 and the shooting total to at least 1,255, according to a Chicago Tribune database of city shootings. Both of those surpass yearly totals for similar timespans in 2013 and 2014, according to an analysis of that database.

And wait until this weekend.

Life Sentence

RIP Officer Flisk and Officer Peters (CHA - retired):

• Timothy Herring, a man found guilty of the 2010 murders of Chicago Police Officer Michael Flisk and former Chicago Housing Authority Officer Stephen Peters, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
  
  Herring listened to his sentence without emotion inside a packed Cook County courtroom Friday.
  
  "There are some cases that stand out among the rest, this is one of those cases. You have earned each and every day of this sentence," Judge Mary Margaret Brosnahan said.

God bless the family and the families of all the fallen.

This Explains Part of It

Always amazing that we have to discover police policy via the media:

• The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI were warning law enforcement Friday about the possibility of terrorist threats around the Fourth of July, unnamed authorities told CNN Friday. Officials circulated a joint intelligence bulletin that does not discuss "any known active threats," but does sound the alert about the potential for "heightened threats," CNN reported.

It's okay now Garry - you can release "the plan." We've had a copy for days, but kept it under wraps.

Untouchable Government

This sounds like another "Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority" type scam:

• Choose Chicago, the city’s taxpayer-subsidized tourism bureau, secretly gave its chief marketing officer a six-figure payout when he left after just two and a half years on the job, newly released records show.
  
  Warren R. Wilkinson abruptly left the organization in July 2013. That was less than two months after Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed President Barack Obama’s former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers as chairman of the Choose Chicago board, replacing Bruce Rauner, who stepped down to run for governor.

"Taxpayer funded?" That means it has to answer questions brought by the taxpayers, right? Or at least, their elected representatives, right?

• Choose Chicago officials won’t disclose the amount of Wilkinson’s severance. They say that as a private, not-for-profit organization, Choose Chicago doesn’t have to explain how it spends its $32 million budget, even though 87 percent of its money comes from taxpayers.

Oh, well pardon us for asking then. At least there is some oversight? Someone watching how the money is spent?

• Like some other not-for-profit Chicago agencies funded by taxpayers, Choose Chicago won’t divulge how it spends its money — a position that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has upheld.

Oh really?

• Choose Chicago is overseen by an unpaid board that includes  Desiree Rogers, chief executive officer of Johnson Publishing Co; Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts; Gibson’s restaurants partner John Colletti; Teamsters Local 727 boss John T. Coli; Chicago Federation of Labor president Jorge Ramirez, and former Emanuel chief of staff Theresa Mintle, a cousin of former Mayor Richard M. Daley. Mintle is president and chief executive officer of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
  
  The Chicago Sun-Times reported last fall that Choose Chicago’s contractors included a consultant who’s a friend of Emanuel, as well as lobbying firms with ties to Daley and House Speaker Michael J. Madigan.

And suddenly, all becomes clear. Now we just need a list the political contributions made by individuals connected to this "tourism bureau" and to whom the contributions landed and we'll all have a much clearer picture of what's going on here.

Again With the Prison Mel?

Some people find that they function better in structured environments we suppose:

• Former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds stood in front of the cameras three years ago with signs that read “redemption.”
  
  “It’s what you do after the mistakes,” Reynolds said in 2012 while announcing a run for a congressional vacancy left by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
  
  But redemption appears to be elusive for Reynolds.
  
  Some 20 years after his first criminal conviction, Reynolds was just named in a federal indictment alleging he failed to file federal tax returns for four consecutive years, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Not just, "I forgot one year." No, Mel has failed to file for four years. That doesn't qualify as an accident. And remember, this guy was a Rhodes Scholar, which means he's supposed to be intelligent...or connected.

More Excuses for Cop Killer

Words cannot describe our disgust:

• Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin understands why police officers are angry the Illinois Prisoner Review Board has ordered the release of the killer of a Chicago cop.
  
  The board voted 8-6 Thursday to free Joseph Bigsby, who was serving a sentence of 100 to 200 years in prison for the 1973 murder of Chicago Police Officer Edward L. Barron.
  
  Police Supt. Garry McCarthy called the decision a “travesty.” The Chicago Police Memorial Foundation said the decision was “disappointing.”
  
  “I appreciate their strong feelings,” Suffredin said Friday. “But he served 42-plus years. That’s not a slap on the hand.”

You know what Officer Edward L. Barron is missing right now Larry? His retirement. His golden years. Bouncing his grandchildren on his knee and regaling them with humorous or heroic stories about when he was a young man growing up in Chicago. Looking over the holiday decorations and a family table laden with good food and better company, marveling at how a copper ever had it so good after 30 or 35 years of a job like his. He missed a Superbowl, a World Series, six basketball championships, three Stanley Cups and forty-two more years of futility on the north side. All of that taken away by a shithead, high on dope, sticking up people for his next fix that netted a whopping $2.05.

And that's not all:

• Suffredin has a personal stake in Bigsby’s case: He was the lead public defender at his trial in 1975. The other public defender was John Cullerton, now the president of the Illinois Senate.

Really? This was news to us. Can someone tell us how many FOP endorsements or campaign contributions went to Cullerton, dating back to 1973? We're curious.

And another stomach turner:

• Illinois Prisoner Review Board member Edith Crigler, herself the widow of a police officer, was among those voting Thursday to release Bigsby.
  
  “We, as a society, must show compassion,” Crigler said.

Only when compassion is warranted you dumb fuck. Bigsby attacked the very foundations of society, the most approachable and visible arm of government (and therefore the most vulnerable). By negating Officer Barron's sacrifice for a $2.05 robbery, you diminish the legitimacy of the police to enforce the laws of a supposedly civilized society, the legal and rightfully just verdict rendered by jury, and the appropriate sentence enacted by the legislature and handed down by a judge.

Society has an obligation to remove from its midst, animals that conscientiously disregard the rule of law. Bigsby should have died in the electric chair, age restrictions not withstanding. Failing that, he should have died on a prison hospital gurney, old, alone, and still restricted by the bars he earned of his own actions.

Officer Barron died on a Chicago sidewalk for daring to live up to the ideals of society, and today, society spit upon him.

This is, quite simply, a perversion of justice.

Who Wants $250K?

An interesting offer:

• Looking for some (semi) easy cash?
  
  Greek billionaire bsp;Alki David might have a job for you — but there’s some risk involved.
  
  According to TimeOut Chicago, David told the audience listening in to the Mancow Morning Show that he is willing to shell out a whopping $250,000 to anyone that is willing to streak in front of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
  
  That’s a lot of cheddar, but there’s the price you might pay for doing such a thing. In Chicago, indecent exposure is a Class A misdemeanor, and comes with up to one year in the slammer and a possible $2,500 fine.

We give this thing 48 hours before at least one attempt is made.

Maybe the FOP could arrange for the Board to parade naked in exchange for fully funding the pension?

Lost in the Shuffle

All of today's headlines were about some Supreme Court decision, relegating to the lower reaches of the media websites was this:

• A suspected Islamist pinned the severed head of his boss to the gates of a US-owned gas factory in France Friday in what President Francois Hollande called a "terrorist" attack.
  
  The alleged assailant, identified as 35-year-old married father-of-three Yassin Salhi, also smashed his vehicle into the Air Products factory, causing an explosion.
  
  The grisly attack near France's second city of Lyon came on an especially bloody day worldwide, with at least 37 gunned down at a beach resort in Tunisia and 25 killed in a suicide bombing in Kuwait claimed by Islamic State extremists.

Just asking, but might this be a prelude to something brewing over the Fourth of July weekend? Something that might explain the palpable panic down at HQ lately? There is a rumor of a "redeployment" of certain personnel, but that is standard for big holiday weekends and has been for over ten years now.

Again, Never Ever Chase

Even if you do everything correctly, you're wrong:

• A Cook County jury has awarded $2.1 million in damages to the family of a 78-year-old woman killed when her vehicle was struck by a sport-utility vehicle the family's attorneys said was fleeing Chicago police in 2008, according to a news release and court records.
  
  Tommye Ruth Freeman was driving east at the 7600 block of South State Street on July 3, 2008, when her vehicle was struck by a white SUV that ran a red light, according to a statement from attorneys representing Freeman’s family. She died of injuries suffered during the crash hours later. On Thursday, a jury awarded her family $2.1 million in damages in a lawsuit filed in 2009.
  
  Freeman’s family’s attorneys said police investigating a nonviolent residential burglary in the 7700 block of South Langley Avenue were chasing the SUV when it collided with Freeman’s vehicle.

The driver was another one of those altar boys we hear so much about:

• Byron Brown, 30, who was driving the SUV, was convicted of murder in Freeman’s death in 2012, and is serving a 25-year prison sentence in that case, according to court and state records. He also pleaded guilty in 2014 in a separate federal murder-conspiracy case, admitting that he committed three murders and was present at two others while a member of the Hobo street gang.

But the police are to blame, regardless:

• Attorneys representing Freeman’s family argued they were “willful and wanton” and violated police procedures in speeding behind the SUV against the flow of traffic on a one-way street in a residential area.

So, let us get this straight:

• The deceased was struck by the offender's car, which blew a red light;
• the plaintiff's attorney claims police were "willful and wanton" speeding behind the SUV against the flow of traffic on a one-way street - which means the officers were following a law breaker;
• again, the striking SUV "blew a red light." Most intersections with a one way street don't have a red light facing the on-coming traffic because...get this....it's the WRONG WAY;
• again, the police vehicle never touched the deceased's vehicle. All of the lawbreaking was done by the now guilty offender - guilty of murder....and a number of other murders besides.

So when burglary offenders decide to burgle, and then break all sorts of traffic laws and endanger the public in their efforts to continue their badly chosen lives of crime, will cost the city over $2 million at a time.

We hear you loud and clear Cook County Juries.

Outrageous

This short piece at Channel 2:

• Eighteen uniformed Chicago police officers were headed to Springfield on Thursday to attend parole hearings for three convicted cop killers.
  
  WBBM Newsradio [...] reports the officers planned to present a silent but visible opposition to early release for three men serving lengthy prison terms for killing police officers in the 1970s.
  
  In 1973, 36-year-old tactical officer Edward Barron was trying to stop a man who matched the description of a suspect from a recent robbery, when Joseph Bigsby shot Barron in the head, killing him.
  
  [Bigsby], now 57, was sentenced to 200 years in prison, and has previously been denied parole.

200 years = 41 years in an 8-to-7 decision to free this asshole:

• Earlier today, a major slap to the face of the entire Law Enforcement community quietly occurred when the Illinois Parole Board voted 8 to 7 to parole convicted cop killer, Joseph Bigsby.
  
  It was after committing a set of robberies, which netted less than $5, in September of 1973 that Chicago Patrol Officer Edward Barron was shot and killed by Bigsby. Originally convicted and sentenced to over 270 years in prison, this cop killer will now be released.

And according to a few e-mails, some Northwestern people made the case for this piece of filth - the same university types who got a few murderers released and railroaded an innocent man.

UPDATE: The name error was Channel 2's, not SCC.  We've bracketed the error by the always brilliant "fact checking" media.

Channel 32 Trolling

Police hater Placko is at it again:

• There are a lot of reasons why police officers miss court dates. Often, it's an innocent explanation.
  
  But as Dane Placko investigates, a review of records by FOX 32 and the Better Government Association suggests that sometimes cops miss court dates because they want the case to disappear.

Sure, because we don't get paid overtime to appear in court. And we don't get deviated and suspended when we fail to appear without a valid excuse signed off on by a sergeant and a lieutenant.

But then Dane ruins the whole effect of the piece with this blatant lie:

• The couple was charged with obstructing traffic, resisting arrest and Garrett was charged with assaulting an officer.
  
  They both spent the night in the 12th District lockup.

Really? The 012 District has a lockup? And not just any lockup - but a male AND female lockup?

Who knew???

Remember, this is the fact-checking media at work here.

More Circus Act

Gotta keep that case front and center!

• A Cook County judge Thursday raised the possibility of allowing only audio coverage at the upcoming trial of a Chicago police commander on charges he shoved a gun into a suspect's throat and threatened to kill him.
  
  Judge Diane Cannon tentatively set trial for Cmdr. Glenn Evans on Aug. 5.
  
  The news media had asked to allow TV cameras and still photographers at Evans' trial as part of a test that is now in its sixth month at the Leighton Criminal Court Building at 26th Street and California Avenue.

The usual objections:

• At a hearing Thursday, Cannon said 14 possible witnesses objected to the in-court coverage, many of them because they said they worked undercover at times and didn't want their identities revealed.
  
  The judge suggested that audio-only coverage may be a workable alternative but said she was not at this point ruling out allowing cameras at the trial.

And of course...:

• ....a Tribune analysis of internal Police Department records showed dozens of citizen complaints had been filed against Evans over a recent 8 1/2-year period. From January 2006 to July 2014 — a period in which Evans was promoted from sergeant to lieutenant and then commander — he amassed 36 complaints in all, far more than anyone else of his rank and exceeded by only 34 officers in the entire 12,000-strong department. He was never disciplined for any complaints, the records show.

Imagine that.

So...12 Hour Days, Eh?

Let's just take a moment to note everything we know about the upcoming debacle:

•  

Now that we got that out of the way, some observations and maybe a few questions:

• Did everyone notice that 005 is specifically left out of the order? That's because they only have two watches, meaning they contribute nothing to the Third Watch reaction force. Yet they could draw officers if the situation calls for it. This might just be the death knell of the10-hour/2-shift program.
• Does anyone else think this is an argument for a citywide deploy-able Unit?
• 12.5 hours - does that translate into an extra personal? An extended lunch? We imagine the backlog is going to translate into not just hours, but multiple hours, maybe a day. Are ET jobs going to be suspended?  Detective hand-outs held over? Selling Dope calls coded without a response as Tact is otherwise occupied? We'll bet the Inspection Division is out in force at the Branch Courts - nothing like kicking Patrol while they're down.
• District bid officers and District bid sergeants - if deployed outside their contractual boundaries, premium pay on top of holiday pay? Dean and Ade should be alerting their members now, not in a grievance next year. Reverse Seniority might apply somehow? It'll be funny as hell to sort this one out.
• Who really thinks the Deadheads are going to do anything but eat Twinkies, munch Doritos and exchange bootleg tapes?
• Are the HQ mice deployed?

 So much entertainment for a summer weekend. Pray for rain.

Nice Bust

We confess, we like seeing sweeps like these. Federal time is usually hard time, away from Illinois, and almost always 85% or better:

• At least 42 people were charged for their alleged roles in a $3 million-a-year narcotics operation on the city's West Side, according to authorities.
  
  According to federal complaints, James Triplett, 33, ran a heroin operation near Grenshaw Street and Independence Boulevard in the city's North Lawndale neighborhood.

This is one of those highway-loops you hear about once in a while - hop off the highway, loop through the hood to buy your dope and hop back on the highway to the western burbs. Of course, the spot is probably up and running tonight with the usual "under new management" signs and if past history is any indication, North Lawndale should be bracing for an uptick in shootings as the young and restless attempt to seize a business opportunity - openings are so hard to come by in the dope trade.

Nice operation though. Good job.

No FEMA Money for You!

Missed this from a few days ago - Baltimore is going to beat Chicago to "Detroit II" status:

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied a state request for disaster aid to cover the costs associated with the rioting and unrest that broke out in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray.
  
  W. Craig Fugate, FEMA’s administrator, wrote in a June 12 letter to Gov. Larry Hogan that federal disaster aid was “not appropriate” for such an event.
  
  “Therefore, I must inform you that your request for a major disaster declaration is denied,” Fugate wrote.
  
  Spokeswoman Erin Montgomery said Friday that the Hogan administration “is reviewing FEMA’s response and will make a determination about the appropriate next steps, including a possible appeal.”

An actual intelligent decision from Washington DC - color us surprised. Enjoy the bed you shit in Baltimore.

Not a Good Headline

You hate to see this:

• 4 shot in South Side attack a block from CPD headquarters

Ouch:

• A man was killed in the Grand Crossing neighborhood and four people were shot in an attack in Bronzeville, a block from Chicago police headquarters.
  
  The four were shot on 35th Street, in the block east of Indiana Avenue, about 8:20 p.m.

Won't somebody think of the bosses??!?!??

Baltimore Case Evaporates

That autopsy report the DA wanted to keep quiet? And keep away from the officers' attorneys? No wonder - it just destroyed major elements of the prosecution:

• Freddie Gray suffered a single "high-energy injury" to his neck and spine — most likely caused when the police van in which he was riding suddenly decelerated, according to a copy of the autopsy report obtained by The Baltimore Sun.The state medical examiner's office concluded that
  
  Gray's death could not be ruled an accident, and was instead a homicide, because officers failed to follow safety procedures "through acts of omission."
  
  Though Gray was loaded into the van on his belly, the medical examiner surmised that he may have gotten to his feet and was thrown into the wall during an abrupt change in direction. He was not belted in, but his wrists and ankles were shackled, putting him "at risk for an unsupported fall during acceleration or deceleration of the van."

What we would call First Degree Murder, Maryland calls "depraved heart" or something similar. That charge would appear shot to hell. The elements of what we would call Second Degree Murder also seem to be lacking. Negligent Homicide? It's a stretch.

So pretty much 61 buildings were burned, 350 businesses damaged, and 113 Officers injured over an accidental death in custody - possibly as little as braking to avoid a collision. And guess which officers were the transport officers? All for the bullshit "racist police" narrative.

How Navy Pier Spends Money

From our comment section:

• Jon Markel said...Back in 2010 the IL General Assembly privatized Navy Pier so they don't have to share any financial info or respond to any FOIA request. A bunch of connecteds who used to manage the publicly run Navy Pier got big pay raises to do the same job for the private Navy Pier. Mike Madigan rammed the whole deal through in a day with no debate. And as the screw-the-citizens cherry on top of this mess the company selected to run the private Navy Pier was formed one day before the contract was awarded and is owned by John Schmidt, Daley's former chief of staff. 

Markel even wrote an article on it:

• After reading the Sun-Times piece on Navy Pier that was the subject of last Monday's Papers column, I was curious to see who in our esteemed General Assembly voted for this massive change in how the largest tourist attraction in Illinois and our massive convention center is managed. It took a while to find it because I was looking for something with a title referencing Navy Pier, Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, McCormick Place or similar. Turns out the title I should have been looking for is "SB0028 QUICK-TAKE-COUNTRY CLUB HILLS."
  
  What the what?!
  
  In the end I found out much more than just who voted for the bill. I'm willing to put this forward as Exhibit 1 in how the Illinois General Assembly is subverting democracy and failing the citizens of Illinois.
  
  The original bill when introduced was a run-of-the-mill eminent domain tax district change for Country Club Hills. You can read the entire text in less than two minutes as it was about half a page long when introduced in the Senate in January 2009.
  
  It bounced around there for a while in committee with a few revisions and then, in April 2009, passed overwhelming in the Senate. Once in the House nothing really happened for over a year, and then this lowly one-page bill passed out of committee and went to the full House on May 5, 2010. The very next day Mike Madigan introduced a floor amendment to the bill.

Then the fun really begins with Madigan deleting the entire text of the SB0028 Bill and inserting 187 pages to hide exactly how McCormick Place, Navy Pier and the entire Metropolitan and Pier Exposition Authority were removed from any sort of public oversight, solely to enrich the connected few.

Go read it all. Markel pulls a "Joravsky" with his research.

Kick That Can Rahm!! (UPDATE)

Kick it!

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel is seeking to put off a massive teacher pension payment that’s due at the end of the month until Aug. 10 under a measure that surfaced Tuesday in the Illinois House.
  
  The request for a delay comes after a series of internal Chicago Public Schools reports indicated that even if the school district drained its checking account, maxed out its credit card and burned cash set aside for other debts, it still would not be able to make the pension payment of more than $600 million, cover payroll and pay all the other due bills.

Like magic, these bills appear in Springfield. Isn't the legislature on summer break?

UPDATE: The measure lost in Springfield - by seven votes. So now what? Is their pension technically bankrupt?

Bill Crawford Radio Appearance

This is the gentleman who just had a book published outlining exactly how the Northwestern University  professor, his students, and the media sprang a guilty Anthony Porter from under a death sentence and railroaded an innocent man into 17-years in prison:

• Tune in tomorrow (Wednesday) to WIND-AM 560 after 8:35 AM. Talk show hosts Amy Jacobson and Dan Proft will be interviewing former Chicago Tribune investigative reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner BILL CRAWFORD, the author of the just published "JUSTICE PERVERTED: How the Innocence Project at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism Sent an Innocent Man to Prison".

Disclosure - we got the book and it is very well researched. An easy read and also easy to follow throughout. Order a copy here - Kindle available for all you modern types.

Short? We're not Short

For what we think is the first time in history the Chicago Police Department is going to 12-hour days in response to a regularly scheduled holiday.

Days and Midnights will be holding down the Districts while Third Watch is still awaiting assignments from Special Events. No word on mobility options, gear to be carried, etc. The order specifically states all afternoon start times are to be "plus or minus two (2) hours of the official third watch start time of 1530 hours," so someone actually read the Contract this time, unlike NATO where the City had to pay out hundreds of thousands to the Second Watch for switching hours outside of the allowable boundaries. They haven't cancelled cays off yet - but we imagine that 15% thing is out the window.

Anyone from the media want to guess why the Department decided to go with 12-hour days? The Fourth of July hasn't been an "emergency situation," in our collective memories and some of our contributors go back six decades of living in Chicago. Why don't you spend some time tracking down the real story?

New Ferris Wheel?

This just seems like a bunch of nonsense - tear down a perfectly good attraction to build one 50 feet higher?

• Navy Pier's Ferris wheel, an icon of the Chicago lakefront, will be dismantled this fall and replaced by a taller ride featuring temperature-controlled gondolas that will be ready in time for the pier's 2016 centennial.
  
  Pier officials and Mayor Rahm Emanuel were set to announce Tuesday that the new wheel will rise to a height of 196 feet, almost 50 feet taller than the current wheel. Still, the new wheel will be 68 feet shorter than the original Ferris wheel, which was built for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
  
  The pier's new Ferris wheel also will not compete height-wise with others that have sprung up worldwide in recent years — such as the 550-foot-tall High Roller that opened last year in Las Vegas.
  
  The Ferris wheel will cost $26.5 million, which includes construction and landscaping, said Nick Shields, a spokesman for Navy Pier Inc. Pier officials said public funds were not used to purchase the Ferris wheel, which has been privately financed by a loan from Fifth Third Bank to Navy Pier Inc. Shields declined to specify the terms of the loan.

Won't specify terms? Isn't this a public official speaking in a public capacity? That means that somewhere, somehow, someone is getting their palms greased and taxpayers are backstopping the terms down the line.

Prickwrinkle to Raise Taxes

Is there anything that democrats can't cure by raising taxes?

• When it was a bad thing, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle referred to it as the “Stroger sales tax.”
  
  Now, Preckwinkle is considering bringing back a penny-on-the-dollar sales tax increase that helped her defeat her predecessor, Todd Stroger.

So she runs on the promise of repealing the tax, wins, repeals the tax, fails to cut any spending and in fact increases the County debt load, so has to resort to ....raising taxes! It's fucking brilliant!

Look Who's Out of Prison

Has it been seventeen months already?

• Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. began three months of home detention Monday and proclaimed it a "great day" to be with family and friends.
  
  Jackson waved to onlookers Monday morning as he left the Volunteers of America Chesapeake Residential Re-entry Center, a halfway house in Baltimore. He wore a white T-shirt and khaki suit and carried sunglasses as he got into one of two black SUVs that were there for him, The Associated Press reported.
  
  After 17 months in prison and just less than three months in the halfway house, Jackson is now confined to his Victorian-style townhouse near Washington's Dupont Circle until September.

We're sure he'll be out there peddling influence in short order.

Another Bloody Weekend

"Murder Mayor" isn't cutting it in the nickname department any more:

• Three men were killed — including a man who died shielding his mother from gunfire — and at least 32 others were wounded in weekend shootings as summer started in Chicago.
  
  James Jones, 21, tried to protect his 46-year-old mother Alicia Jones on the front porch of their home when a gunman opened fire from a gangway about noon Saturday in the 8400 block of South Colfax, according to their family and authorities.

Of course, unmentioned in the article is that three (of four total) of Alicia's children have died in violence over the years, so either she has the worst luck imaginable, or there's something lacking in her child rearing skills.

In the meantime, post a new nickname for Rahm. Murder Mayor is way too tame.

Drip Drip Drip

cBS gets in on the act:

• As Police Supt. Garry McCarthy begins his fifth year running the Chicago Police Department, some aldermen – old and new – appeared to be losing confidence in his ability to reduce gun violence as summer approaches.
  
  On Thursday alone, at least six people were slain, and 16 others were wounded in shootings on the South Side. According to the Chicago Tribune, through Monday, there had been 120 more shootings this year than at the same point last year.
  
  Newly elected Ald. David Moore (17th) flatly said he doesn’t think McCarthy’s police strategies are working.
  
  “Some changes have to be made at the top, as it relates to who’s running the Police Department right now,” he said.
  
  Second-term Ald. John Arena (45th) seemed to grudgingly agree.

The Sun Times, the Better Government Association, Fox, the Black Caucus, now CBS.

Storm clouds gathering.

Words Aren't Doing it Rahm

Typical leftist thinking - if we just talk about things, it'll all be rainbows and unicorns:

• Promises made and promises still to be kept.
  
  Violence continues to plague a South Side neighborhood, where exactly one year ago, civic and corporate leaders joined with elected officials, vowing to combat inner-city violence.
  
  But in the area where that meeting took place, there have been nearly as many shootings already this year, as there were in all of 2014.

Nearly as many there - but way more elsewhere. In fact, hundreds of shootings ahead of last year citywide!

• It has been two years since First Lady Michelle Obama came to Chicago to kick off a campaign that has since raised an estimated $40 million for anti-violence programs.
  
  Yet according to the Chicago Tribune, less than 10 percent of that money has been put to work.
  
  Congressman Rush was asked why.

Well, we imagine someone stole the money. We mean, $40 million in donations just lying around with no oversight? What could possibly go wrong?!?!?

The good news is that it wasn't public funds that should have been going toward pensions or another crooked contract.

Safety Safety Safety

The bloody year continues:

• A handcuffed prisoner in a moving police cruiser managed to grab a gun, fatally shoot the officer at the wheel and escape from the vehicle, which careened into a utility pole at a busy intersection, police said Saturday.
  
  Officer Daryle Holloway, 45, died at a hospital, police chief Michael Harrison said. Meanwhile, an intense manhunt was on for Travis Boys, 33, the suspect who had been arrested on an aggravated assault charge and was being taken to jail when he escaped.
  
  The New Orleans Crimestoppers organization announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to Boys' arrest.

The killer has since been re-arrested. Alive. Transporting 99 is not very safe to begin with, but this is ridiculous:

• Boys got to the front seat through an opening in the cage that separates front and back seats and shot Holloway, Harrison said.

"...an opening..."? There shouldn't be "an opening" anywhere in the cage. Cop in front, animal in the cage. That's just common sense. Let's get on that right away NOPD.

RIP Officer Holloway.

Police Shooting

Missed this one over the weekend:

• A Chicago police officer shot a man early Saturday while responding to a call of men with guns in the South Shore neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  Several Area Central Gun Team units responded to a call of men with guns about 12:10 a.m. in the 7000 block of South Merrill Avenue, according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department.
  
  When officers arrived, four people were standing on a northern corner of 71st and Merrill, said Chicago police Deputy Chief Berscott Ruiz.
  
  A 23-year-old man, one of the four people, took off running east but then came back after he saw an officer approaching from that direction.
  
  One of the officers saw that the man had a gun and told him to drop it.
  
  "The individual then turned, raised the gun toward the officer and the officer fired his weapon multiple times," Ruiz said as he stood at the edge of the scene of the shooting early Saturday.

Evidently, Ruiz has replaced the Orange One at shooting scenes.

The neighborhood is outraged of course...but not at the folks (or people) running around with guns:

• "Police shot one of our kids," a woman said. "This s--- is crazy."
  
  Kesha Williams, 32, said she saw the shooting out the window of her apartment in a building at the intersection, across from the payday loan store.
  
  She said she didn't understand why the police officer had to shoot the 23-year-old man.

Um, that's because she isn't a lawyer...or an officer...or a student of the law....or literate we imagine. But the media gives her a platform all the same to spout her ignorance from the rooftops.

• "They didn't say 'freeze' or nothing," Williams said, upset over what she saw. "The boy didn't even know which way to go."
  
  Williams said the man who was shot was known in the neighborhood as "Nunu."
  
  "This is a boy that everybody knows. He is respectful," said Williams, who has been living in South Shore for about two years. "He had his faults just like everybody else. He was trying to get his life on track."

Of course he was...altar boy, boy scout, model citizen...and aspiring rap artist no doubt.

Well done Officers.

Time to Dump the Fest

Once again, our annual call to discontinue what turns out to be a vehicle for mayhem and bloodshed:

• An 18-year-old was fatally shot in the city's Humboldt Park neighborhood in what has been a violent weekend in the neighborhood despite festivals and parades.

"despite festivals and parades"??? Newsflash morons - the parade attracts the violence. It provides a nexus, a center, for all of the fools to come out and flash signs and strut around and pretty much make asses of themselves before the guns come out and wound anyone in the right place:

• The neighborhood has seen three shootings since Saturday, including a brazen daytime shooting and a slaying that claimed the life of a teen.

We recall the people who ran a certain south side ethnic parade cancelled it when the drinking, public intoxication and indecency was out of control. But this "festival with a body count" carries on as usual.

Awfully Nice Pension

The government sure is generous with taxpayers' money:

• When Dorval R. Carter Jr. returned to the CTA last month as the transit agency’s president, he had to temporarily give up a sweet pension deal that had paid him three-quarters of a million dollars in just five and a half years.
  
  Taking advantage of a little-known early-retirement incentive offered by the CTA, Carter left his second stint with the agency in 2009 and started collecting a $137,229-a-year pension the same month he turned 52, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times and Better Government Association show.
  
  Carter didn’t retire, though. He moved to Washington, D.C., to take a post as a top lawyer in President Barack Obama’s U.S. Department of Transportation, where he would rise to the post of acting chief of staff, making $146,450 a year.
  
  Double-dipping as a federal government official while also collecting a pension from the CTA allowed Carter to take home a combined taxpayer-subsidized income that reached $283,679 a year, records show.

But remember, it's those greedy police officers and firefighters looking to retire on half-pay at 20 years that are the problem - about one-third of what this guy was pulling down at the CTA, and barely one-seventh of his double-dipping days with the CTA and the feds paying him.

The math is astounding:

• He’d worked for the CTA from 1984 to 1991, then, after working for the Federal Transit Administration, returned in 2000, staying until he accepted the early-retirement deal in 2009.
  
  That amounted to a total of 16 and a half years with the CTA. But he was able to get a pension based on nearly twice that — 30 years of service — because the CTA, hoping to save money by encouraging higher-paid employees to retire early, allowed him to get credit for the nearly eight years he’d worked for the federal government and to buy credit for additional time.

Seven years with the CTA, "bought" another 8+ years of service, retired at 52 pulling in $137,000 and went to DC to earn another $150,000 while collecting the pension - and we'll bet you five bucks he didn't spend a single year actually driving a bus.

Go read it all and try not to vomit.

Baltimore to Fire/Arrest Police

Bad to worse in a matter of days:

• More Baltimore police officers likely face arrest as the result of reforms in a scandal-ridden department that requires "wholesale change," Commissioner Anthony W. Batts wrote in a wide-ranging opinion piece published in The Baltimore Sun.
  
  "Our reform efforts will very likely see more police officers arrested," Batts wrote. "We will have more officers who are forced out because their outdated, outmoded views of policing do not match the standards the community expects and demands."
  
  The piece was published Friday on The Sun's website and appears in Sunday's print editions.

Go read the entire article and the linked editorial penned by the Chief. You want to see someone throw an entire police department under the bus, here it is.

We certainly hope the the media types will be keeping an exact tally of how "out-of-control" crime is about to get. Baltimore was never really Detroit, but now, Detroit might look like a vacation paradise compared to Baltimore in short order.

Dallas to Protect Police

This is a refreshing attitude:

• Dallas officials say it could cost nearly $1,000 per square foot to install bulletproof glass at police headquarters, the scene of a brazen weekend attack by a gunman.
  
  But Mayor Mike Rawlings vowed Monday that money would be no object in providing long-term protection for Dallas officers.
  
  "We've got the money to do what's right," Rawlings said. "We've got to make it safer."

Of course, Dallas is in a successful state, not a failed one

Spike, You Funny Guy!

There's this movie director...he makes movies. He's had maybe two successful movies in his career, and a bunch of flops. His entire schtick nowadays is the "exploitation" genre and the latest is a movie shot here in town.

Now, after filming his latest project about violence and bloodshed, in a neighborhood wracked by violence and bloodshed, Spike has decided to take a stand....A STAND...against violence and bloodshed:

• In a merging of movies with reality, Hollywood filmmaker Spike Lee led an all-star cast in a march for peace throughout the streets of Auburn-Gresham Friday night.
  
  The director whose latest project filming in Chicago — “Chiraq” — has drawn criticism from several city leaders, headlined the annual end of the school year peace march of St. Sabina Church.
  
  “You know why we’re here — we all want peace in Chicago,” Lee told the 500 or so area residents and members of community groups who turned out. He joked, ”We’re not going to mention that [movie] name today.”

Oh Spike, you slay us! Let's not mention "Chiraq" the day after 3 people were killed and another 17 were wounded, mostly within a five-mile circle around St. Sabina.

It occurs to us that if Spike's films actually had an impact on violence, things like that wouldn't be happening and Spike would be out of a job.

Baltimore Threats

The entire situation in Baltimore has descended into the realms of ridiculousness:

• The mayor said she's made her expectations clear to the police union, adding the commissioner is prepared to take action if officers purposely fail to serve and protect.
  
  Rawlings-Blake drew a line in the sand regarding police and their oath to serve and protect the public.
  
  "As long as they plan to cash their paycheck, our expectation, my expectation is that they work," Rawlings-Blake said.
  
  City police officers are showing up for work, but by their own admission they intend to react to situations more than anything else. Two hid their faces and disguised their voices last week on CNN.
  
  "Well the difference is the proactive self-initiated policing has stopped. We're now in a reactive mode. We're in a total reactive mode," the officers told CNN.

Remember, these political leaders have acquiesced to mob rule. The mayor gave rioters "room" to wreak havoc, loot and burn. The mayor ordered police not to engage, and then blamed them. The DA didn't conduct anything like a realistic investigation, interviewed almost no witnesses or principals, massively over-charged the defendants, and is currently engaged in trying to keep autopsy evidence from the defense lawyers, depriving them of the opportunity to put on an informed, capable defense.

The cops are doing exactly what is required of them by law - responding to calls and writing reports. There isn't a law anywhere in this country that requires officers to make observations, get out of the car, confront suspicious people, frisk them and take proactive actions. There are plenty of laws delineating what elements have to be present to lawfully do these things,. but to require these actions?

Can you say "quota?" And everyone knows quota policing is bad policing and is in fact, against the law in pretty much every single state. It's a nice thing to have observant officers. It's a good thing to have cops that care about stopping crime before it happens, confronting suspicious people, being proactive. But requiring it? Not without the support of the citizens and the system and unfortunately for Baltimore, that day is long gone.

Rahm Moves the Budget Timetable

This is a surprise:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday he will introduce his 2016 budget in September — a full month early — to confront Chicago’s “momentous budget and pension challenges.”
  
  Chicago’s faces a $1 billion operating shortfall and a $20 billion pension crisis. The Chicago Public Schools has a $1 billion shortfall and a $9.5 billion unfunded pension liability that threatens the on-time opening of Chicago Public Schools.
  
  An Illinois Supreme Court ruling that overturned state pension reforms and placed Emanuel’s plan to save two of four city employee pension funds in similar jeopardy dropped Chicago’s bond rating to junk status.

So we'll be at the tail end of the summer killing season, likely a few weeks into a Teachers' strike and Rahm wants to introduce his budget a month early...a budget that's going to have to cover a $550 million payment to the pension.

What does Rahm know? Has Rauner signaled the casino bill is going to pass? Because everything is tied to that bill....everything. Without that bill, Rahm is up Shit Creek without a paddle, as are the taxpayers and the pension funds.

Asshole Kills Ohio Cop with Chicago Roots

And in turn, was killed by responding officers, but that tradeoff is never worth it:

• A Cincinnati police officer killed in a shootout Friday was a Chicago native who had attended high school and community college here before leaving for Ohio, authorities said.
  
  Cincinnati's police chief says a man suspected of fatally shooting the officer, Sonny Kim, apparently wanted police to kill him in what the chief described as "suicide by cop."
  
  Kim, a decorated 27-year veteran of the Cincinnati Police Department, died along with the man involved in the Friday morning shooting in the Madisonville neighborhood, police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell said.

Sympathies to the Cincinnati PD and the family of the fallen.

UPDATE: We reversed the origin of the  cop and the asshole - title corrected to reflect the correction.

Bad Choice of Friends

The subtle undermining continues in the media:

• At the time she vanished in 1980, Karen Koppel was causing headaches for Ben Stein – a mob associate and felon whose Chicago janitorial company had grown fat through local government contracts.
  
  Stein, who was in his 60s and married to someone else, wanted to break off what apparently was a romantic relationship with the much younger Koppel. However, Koppel wasn’t happy. She was making wild accusations about Stein, and demanded a large financial settlement to let things drop, Chicago police records indicate.
  
  Stein asked a long-time friend – then-Chicago cop Richard "Rick" Simon, who moonlighted for Stein’s firm – to help amicably resolve things, according to police records and interviews.
  
  Simon acknowledged to the Better Government Association meeting and talking with Koppel at a Rush Street-area tavern one crisp spring night 35 years ago. She left alone, and wasn’t heard from again, prompting missing persons investigations by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and Chicago police.

And who is the Better Government Association tagging with the "drip drip drip" of uncovered scandal?

• Koppel has never turned up dead or alive, the case remains "open" and nobody has been formally cleared as a potential suspect, authorities said. Yet Simon has a noticeably different relationship with law enforcement these days: He not only socializes with Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, as previously reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. He also has donated to and possibly raised money for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s political campaign, the BGA found.

Didn't we lose a Superintendent just a few years back over his choice in associates? Is history repeating?

IPRA Corruption

Crooked City Blog found out why the Evans trial has been delayed:

• An employee of the agency that investigates police abuse was fired last week for allegations of perjury.
  
  Now, new allegations are surfacing that former Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) employee Matrice Campbell is also being investigated by the city’s Inspector General for misconduct in the case against Chicago Police Commander Glenn Evans.
  
  The allegations could be a devastating blow for the Cook County State’s Attorney, who has pursued a high-profile criminal case against Evans.
  
  The state’s attorney charged Evans with battery and official misconduct in 2014 for allegedly putting a gun in a suspect’s mouth.
  
  Media reports originally indicated that DNA evidence from the suspect, Rickey J. Williams, had been obtained from Evans’ gun.
  
  But in a court hearing today, defense attorneys for Evans reportedly revealed that Campbell is under investigation by the city’s Inspector General for a host of other abuses in connection with Evans’ case. Attorneys in the hearing also reportedly indicated that other IPRA employees may be targeted by the Inspector General.

So the organization that is tasked to oversee a supposedly "out-of-control" police department is itself, totally out-of-control. What's the over/under on federal oversight?

A Sea of Red (UPDATE)

What? No, not the Blackhawks parade, although that was a festive event.  No, we were talking about 007 and the south side:

• A 30-year-old man was pronounced dead after he and two other men were shot Thursday afternoon in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood, officials said.
  
  Four other men were also injured in other shootings Thursday, police said.

At one point Thursday afternoon, Englewood recorded something like 5 separate shootings during the afternoon/evening. Officers were so busy responding to and cleaning up shooting scenes that regular police work fell by the wayside. Which, ironically, contributed to a sizable percentage drop in crime across the city - because if the police aren't recording regular crime, it doesn't count!

Crime is down!

UPDATE: According to comments and various e-mails, NINE shootings in under 16 hours. And the only reason it wasn't worse is that even the thugs have to get some sleep.

More Parking Bribes?

Hey Rahm, how about you go to court and see if you can get this contract cancelled?

• The FBI is investigating whether an executive at the firm that manages Chicago's privatized parking meters was paid $90,000 in bribes to steer a contract to install and maintain the controversial meters across the city.
  
  The alleged kickback scheme was laid out in an FBI search warrant affidavit filed in February seeking access to two email accounts tied to the vice president of government services at LAZ Parking, the firm hired by a Morgan Stanley-led business consortium in 2008 to manage the privatized meters in Chicago.
  
  According to the 17-page filing that was made public recently, the LAZ executive met with the president and CEO of another firm, identified only as Company A, at a Florida restaurant in late 2008, as the city's much-maligned $1.2 billion deal to lease the meters for 75 years was being finalized.

With the stink of corruption all over this thing, there just might be a possibility of getting control back over street parking. And maybe, with the right pressure, getting Shortshanks put behind bars.

Rauner Picking a Big Fight

About time someone calls out the twerp:

• Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner launched an unprecedented TV ad campaign Tuesday, attacking powerful Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan as state government teeters toward a shutdown next month.
  
  The Rauner ad accuses Madigan of blocking the pro-business, anti-union changes the governor is seeking, saying all the speaker wants to do is raise taxes. At the Capitol, Madigan stuck to his weekslong theme by calling both the ad and Rauner's agenda "extreme."
  
  Rauner's marketing tactic signals a new era in Illinois politics, with the wealthy governor taking his message directly to voters to try to gain leverage against his opponents in a continual campaign that goes far beyond traditional election contests. It's also in keeping with what Republicans privately say is Rauner's long-term strategy of demonizing Madigan in an effort to eventually reduce his power and influence.

Make Madigan the poster child for term limits and out-of-control spending. Point out that no one becomes successful in Illinois unless they're connected to the Combine and everything costs more precisely because Madigan has been fucking things up for so long. It's a good start.

Retired Judge Does What?

Is this ethical? Or legal?

• In a case the FBI is investigating, a retired judge released a dashcam video that shows a Chicago Police officer shooting into a car on the South Side in December 2013, according to the Chicago Reporter.
  
  The Chicago Sun-Times reported last month that the FBI was investigating the shooting in which two black teens were wounded on Dec. 22 near 95th and La Salle. The shooting happened after Chicago Police officers curbed a stolen car packed with joyriders, the department said in a statement after the incident.

This is an on-going investigation. And the judge is retired from the bench - should he even have this in his possession?

So.....

What happened at the FOP meeting Tuesday?

Another Call for Garry's Head

So if the Conspiracy Theory holds, first the media is tipped off Rahm wants Garry gone, then the political blocs get involved:

• New calls have surfaced for the chief of police to step down after 4 people were killed and 24 were wounded in Chicago this past weekend.
  
  Except for a fatal stabbing in Uptown, every other incident happened on the South Side or West Side in neighborhoods that are enduring a big spike in violence this year.
  
  The chairman of the City Council's Black Caucus, Alderman Roderick Sawyer, told FOX 32 News that his group may call for firing Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.
  
  African-American aldermen plan to meet Wednesday afternoon. Sawyer told FOX 32 that a majority of his colleagues want a new top cop.
  
  South Side Ald. Roderick Sawyer said a series of conversations with his City Council colleagues in the last two days showed that "there is great discontent with Supt. McCarthy."

Now if only the FOP would kick in with a "no confidence" type press release. Something along the lines of hot summers, long sleeves, hats on during the hottest times of the year, general lack of concern for the comfort of the rank-and-file.

Hey, it could happen.

The Changes

The ones everyone was worried about:

• Dep Chief F. Waller from 006 to Area South
• Cmdr D Godsel from 022 to 009
• Cmdr L Panepinto from 009 to Crime Prevention and Information
• Capt R Blissett from XO 007 to Acting Cmdr 006
• Capt M Harmon from XO 008 to Acting Cmdr 022
• Cmdr E. Voulgaris from BOP to 017

Deck chairs, Titanic, some assembly required.

We Really Hate to Do This....

....but we love spending money so much, so we're going to have to borrow another $1.1 billion of it:

• Amid comparisons to “shuffling the deck chairs” on the Titanic, the City Council’s Finance Committee agreed Monday to add another $1.1 billion to the mountain of debt piled on Chicago taxpayers after aldermen were warned the city’s junk bond rating demanded it.
  
  When its bond rating dropped below investment grade, Chicago could have faced paying nearly $2.2 billion to bankers under a series of complex deals dating back to former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s tenure.

Never the words "spending cuts." Just things like "junk bonds," "shovel-and-toss," and our new favorite - "legacy costs," a polite way of saying Shortshanks left us with a giant smoking crater of a hole in the ground that can only be filled by money....money no one seems to have.

New Book

An old-time reporter takes everything we now know about the so-called "Innocence Project" and the crooked Medill "School" of "Journalism and writes a hell of a book about it all:

• Well, unfortunately for Northwestern, the Chicago Tribune, and the entire machine that helped free Porter, there is still one true journalist in Chicago.
  
  His name is Bill Crawford. About five years ago, Crawford, a retired Chicago Tribune reporter who won the Pulitzer Prize, smelled a rat in the Porter case. He sat down with two retired ATF agents, now private investigators, Jim Delordo and John Mezzola, and went through the documents, transcripts, and facts of the case step by step. It immediately became clear to Crawford that the Porter exoneration was a criminal conspiracy.
  
  Crawford typed up a long article about the evidence that Porter was guilty and Simon was wasting away in prison.
  
  Naive on just how much Chicago had changed in the years since Crawford had retired, Crawford thought that the local media would certainly want to review his article, right? Certainly the Tribune and the Sun Times would give it front page coverage? Perhaps there was another Pulitzer Prize in store for Crawford.
  
  Hardly.

Order a copy here.

Look Who Dropped By

Again:

You know, people could get used to this sort of thing. It might actually give them good feelings and a happy outlook on the long cold winters here.

Congratulations to what we consider one of best organizations in all of sports.

Save Your Seat Now

From the Chaplains:

• Come support Police Chaplains Ministry and our outreach to Gold Star Families!
  
  Happy hour on Tuesday, 11 AUG, 5:30-7:30 at O'Briens on North and Wells in Old Town.
  
  $50 donation to Police Chaplains Ministry (an IRS-recognized 501c3 organization) covers unlimited food and drink ... and free valet parking.
  
  We are limited to 100 people. This event is sure to sell out, so respond soon if interested. Your donation to the address below puts your name on the guest list.
  
  Thanks for your constant support of our vital ministry!
  
  God bless you,
  
  Fr. Dan Brandt
  CPD Chaplain

All the info you need is here.

informational post only.

Technical Question (and Answer)

We don't know who posted this, but we only have one way to communicate with them:

• SCC - Is there any chance you can update the blog to allow readers to click the individual post headlines and view single posts? I'm trying to link this article to a few people, but since I can't view the article by itself, I can't link it.

Sure you can - you're just looking at the wrong end of the article. Click on the time stamp in the "Posted by SCC at 00:00 AM" at the very bottom of the post and you'll get your very own hyperlink to include in e-mails.

McCarthy Death Watch

A reasonably independent editorial board has called for replacing the Superintendent:

• No one person can singlehandedly solve Chicago's crime problem. But the Chicago Police Department needs a leader with a grasp of the causes of crime and clear strategies to address them. After four years on the job, it's clear that Superintendent Garry McCarthy isn't that man.
  
  As the Chicago Tribune noted on June 8, the city already has surpassed 1,000 shootings this year, much sooner than last year or the year before. In other words, violence is getting worse in Chicago, even as crime rates continue to drop in other big cities. This is not a trendline that will help Chicago retain and recruit talent.
  
  For years, the Emanuel administration has bemoaned the influx of illegal guns from nearby states with less stringent gun laws. OK, but illegal weapons flow into New York and Los Angeles, too, and the number of shootings in both places is falling.

We've been pointing this out for years. Chicago Magazine decided to do an investigative piece that pretty much destroyed the CompStat narrative. Homicides and shooting are indicative of a larger crime trend - we don't know anyone who, when reasonably informed, thinks that crime is actually down. They are aware of downgrading crime, long response times, impossible waits for Officers or excessive hold times for 3-1-1.

If it isn't reported, it doesn't exist and more citizens every day regale us with stories of "it just wasn't worth waiting" when deciding not to make a report, sometimes as many as three people a week. They don't think crime is down by a long shot.

So let's see if Rahm takes the hint.

Fuck CNN

The communist news network doing it's thing again:

• CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield called the attack on Dallas Police Headquarters “very courageous and brave” on Saturday’s “CNN Newsroom.”
  
  Whitfield, while discussing the shooting with legal analyst Philip Holloway, said, “It was very courageous and brave, if not crazy as well, to open fire on the police headquarters, and now you have this scene, this standoff. So you believe these are the hallmarks of more than one person’s involvement?”
  
  Holloway’s smile visibly drooped when Whitfield praised the would-be cop killer.

Remember, these are the folks who say conservative women deserve to get shot at for exercising freedom of speech.

Check the Tires

Once again, a copper was driving home on the south side and heard a strange noise coming from his personal vehicle. As he pulled to the side, the tire tore loose and flew across the roadway. He was able to safely stop the car and the tire didn't hit anyone, but once again, the wide-open parking lots with no cameras and pretty much no security are accessed by all sorts of unsavory characters who loosen lug nuts in the hopes of causing officers harm.

You should check your squad as a matter of course before each and every tour, but when you're looking to get the hell out of work and into a comfy bed, sometimes you don't even look at your personal car. Give it a glance, especially if you have exposed lugs.

See No Evil

Minnesota, that bastion of Walter Mondale, doesn't want police using their eyes:

• Minneapolis has wiped away laws that banned lurking and spitting, responding to critics who said they unfairly targeted minorities.
  
  The Minneapolis City Council voted 12-1 on Friday to repeal the ordinances. Mayor Betsy Hodges called the ordinances antiquated and unnecessary.
  
  Minnesota Public Radio reports that Council President Barb Johnson cast the lone no vote. She said the lurking law allowed police to stop people before they committed crimes in neighborhoods like the north side ward she represents.
  
  But advocacy groups targeted the ordinances after high-profile shootings in other cities raised tension between police and citizens.

So because of supposed "tension" elsewhere, the city council of Minneapolis decided to do away with the old "up-to-no-good" observations that officers make dozens of times a shift, lest the police find someone who was actually up to no good.

Thursday + Friday = Bloody Week

Friday stats:

• A man and a woman have died and at least 11 others were wounded during shootings across the city since Friday morning, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office and police.

Added to Thursday, we're at 5 dead and 19 wounded in just two days.

There are entire states that don't rack up stats like that in a week.

Selling Tax Breaks

Why don't they publish stories like this on weekdays?

• Chicago has become Hollywood on Lake Michigan, captivating residents and tourists alike who gawk at celebrities filming movies like “Transformers” and TV shows like “Chicago Fire.”
  
  State officials say filming has been an economic boon, with production companies spending an estimated $2.8 billion on Illinois goods, services and wages for actors and other workers over the past seven years.
  
  That’s come at a price. Taxpayers stand to lose $204 million because of tax breaks the state gave to 931 movies, TV shows and commercials between July 1, 2008, and Dec. 11, 2014, under the Illinois Film Production Services Tax Credit Program, records show.

Here's an amusing revelation we were unaware of:

• Many filmmakers have cashed in by selling those tax credits to businesses including Meijer, Kohl’s and Apple, as well as to a handful of individuals, among them Oprah Winfrey, who get to deduct the credits from corporate and personal income taxes they pay the state.

These things are portable? We figured the movie companies were getting tax breaks on purchases and leases and such, but not that they were selling them. Can they sell these for a profit? And to individuals and companies that don't maintain a sizable corporate presence here? Apple? Oprah? Someone care to explain how much we're subsidizing people/corporations who seldom spend a dime here? We aren't geniuses, but we aren't completely dense.

Transfer Order Out

A bunch of movement among the rank-and-file.

A lot of it was "clean-up" movement - people who had been transferred by phone orders in the middle of the police period and now the orders have been officially set to paper. But some of it was the biddable movement that is so rare these past months.

And interesting observation - in the patrol-to-patrol Officer movements, 25% were people leaving 005. Of the patrol-to-patrol sergeant movements, 33% were people leaving 005. That is hardly a ringing endorsement of the 10-hour day.

We use percentages because CompStat has taught us that expressing numbers in that manner makes the media and politicians squeal with delight over supposed "decreases" in crime and no one actually bothers to check what the real numbers are. We're trusting the same with happen here.

Command Changes!

Seems there were around half-a-dozen command moves Friday.

Does anyone care?

Dallas Attack

A man in an armored van attacked Dallas PD Headquarters this morning, shooting up the building and planting numerous bombs before attempting to escape. Last report has him killed on scene by a sniper. Any of the news links on the right hand side have reports of the event.

Irony - the van was a surplus sheriff van that had been purchased a short while ago.

More irony - the Police Chief is crediting a military surplus .50 caliber rifle used to take out the van engine block and prevent escape - the same equipment the president doesn't want us to have because it's "scary." What's more scary - a trained officer using this equipment to stop a madman or that madman running amok in a bullet-resistant vehicle loaded with stolen ammo and guns and a vendetta against schools, churches and the police?

As a mental exercise, explore the consequences of an attack on a Chicago Police Station. No bullet-resistance glass, open lobbies, plywood desk areas, open offices, no bollards to deflect vehicles, etc.

Borrowing - Because of the Police

Chicago is broke, yet banks keep lending it money:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel's cash-strapped City Hall is preparing to borrow $1.1 billion to complete his debt restructuring plan, pay off a major court judgment and cover police back pay, among other costs.

Whoops! There it is - those nasty police causing Rahm to have to borrow another $1.1 billion dollars!  Damn those police anyway.

And exactly how much of that $1.1 billion is "back-pay"? Under 7%, a mere $75 million. But there's the Department, front and center of the opening paragraph, and barely mentioned is the 32% in service costs to convert the bad debt to less-bad debt.

We aren't money giants like Rahm, who made millions working in the world of high finance...oh wait, he didn't make that money either - it was a gift salary for being connected at the hip to the Clinton political machine back in the day. But even we know that when expenditures outpace income, you have an unsustainable model, and borrowing only aggravates the problem.

Nice Thursday

Crime is still down!

 - G. McCompStat:

• Three men were killed and at least eight other people were wounded in shootings across Chicago between Thursday afternoon and early Friday, police said.

Does anyone know if the police are still the problem? We haven't gotten a memo lately from the grievance-mongers.

Another Highway Shooting

Expressways are getting more dangerous:

• Three people were wounded when a car pulled alongside their vehicle on the Dan Ryan Expressway and someone opened fire early Friday on the South Side, police said.
  
  “We were on the expressway, and a car pulled up and just let off like 10 shots,” one of the victims said after being treated at Saint Bernard Hospital.
  
  "I just got grazed in the head," he said, asking not to be identified. "I’m fine though, I’m good. I just got a headache.”

Just a headache, while thousands of other people were late for work, late getting home, missed appointments with bar stools, etc. Thank goodness that CompStat can hide these shootings by pretending that since the Illinois State Police investigate, they didn't happen in Chicago.

Get Used to This Picture

Homicide up north and this picture was attached to the article:

A lot of hats there on the uniforms.

Hey Archbishop Blase? (UPDATE)

You going to take care of this?

• The campaign to pressure movie director Spike Lee to drop the name “Chiraq” from his upcoming move on black-on-black violence is intensifying. A rookie aldermen is playing hardball.
  
  Newly elected Ald. David Moore (17th) is refusing to grant a city permit required to close the street for Saturday’s annual summer block party outside St. Sabina’s Catholic Church in Auburn-Gresham for one reason: the party is co-sponsored by Spike Lee and the cast of “Chiraq.”
  
  “He would not sign the permit if Spike Lee had anything to do with it. He said his residents have a problem with the name of the movie,” said Rev. Michael Pfleger, the outspoken pastor of St. Sabina’s who is cooperating with Lee on the Chicago-based movie.
  
  [...]
  
  Pfleger, who backed Glenda Franklin in the race for 17th Ward alderman, said he’s not about to let a rookie alderman overstepping his bounds spoil the party for Auburn-Gresham residents and their children.
  
  The block party between 78th and 79th Streets on Throop will go on — from 2 pm. to 8 p.m. on Saturday — with or without a permit, he said.

Really? Well we certainly hope that the District has the wagon lined up and ready to cart this asshole off to jail for the night. The aldercreature consulted with his speechwriters before issuing the following:

• Hours later, the aldermen issued a statement condemning Pfleger’s defiance as a poor example for inner-city teenagers.
  
  “We cannot ask our young people to respect authority if we’re not going to respect authority. Everyone believes they can do their own thing for their own reasons and when that occurs, it creates the kind of chaos that we experience in the black community all too often,” Moore was quoted as saying.
  
  “If St. Sabina can skirt the rules, then the door will open for every other person in every other ward to do the same thing.”

That's a first for us - an aldercreature actually pointing out the rules are there for everyone's benefit and this asshole breaking the rules because "hey, it's a party for the kids!" is exactly what is wrong in that entire community. We can't think of a single church that gets away with a fraction of what pfleger does - it's a personality cult down there and it's dangerous. Who's running that neighborhood anyway - the elected guy or the asshole the establishment is afraid of?

Archbishop Cupich is stuck with the can that the last two Cardinals kicked down the road. Someone needs to kick pfleger down the road regardless of any fallout to the Chicago Archdiocese. It has been along time doming.

UPDATE: Aldercreature caved and signed the permit. What a dumbass.

Still Looking to Kill Chicago

If we wanted to hollow out the economic center of the city, we'd do this:

• With a huge budget deficit ahead, Chicago city government is desperately searching for new income.
  
  Now, Mayor Rahm Emanuel may be seriously considering an income tax.
  
  CBS 2 [...] takes a look at the smoke signals from city hall.
  
  Emanuel isn’t specifically talking income tax yet. But one of his strongest city council allies, 49^th Ward Ald. Joe Moore, is speaking up.
  
  “In my ideal scenario, it would be a graduated income tax that would be pegged at peoples’ ability to pay,” he says.

"Ideal" being the key word here.

You want to see telecommuting become a real deal? It will under this plan. United will reverse its move into the city and expand it's Elk Grove Village facilities. Boeing might move back to Seattle. The CBOT and other exchanges will carry through on previous threats and move what's left of their trading floors to the burbs, out-of-state of cyberspace. And that's just for starters.

In fact, the people who will be disparately impacted by such a move will be city workers required to live in Chicago. How about the City Council address the overspending habits that have driven this place into the financial ruin it currently occupies?